"Dark power, huh? What terrifying gravity."
Having just eaten the Logia Dark-Dark Fruit, Yami immediately grasped the power of darkness.
A young man, one meter eighty-nine, short black hair, strikingly handsome, dressed in a long black coat and trousers, walked out from the pirate ship's cabin.
Thin strands of black mist curled around him.
His originally fair right hand was now sheathed in that mist, forming a black hand.
Only those who had mastered Observation Haki could sense what kind of force that black hand contained.
The power of a black hole.
The strongest feature of a black hole.
Gravity.
"Black Hole."
Yami suddenly crouched and pressed his mist-wreathed right hand onto the deck.
Ink-dark vapor surged from his palm and spread in all directions.
In the blink of two eyes, the mist had covered the deck.
An invisible pull turned the misted deck into a swamp, dragging every corpse lying upon it into the void of the black hole.
After devouring them all, the mist flowed back the way it came and was reabsorbed into Yami's black hand.
"Liberation."
Yami straightened. The black mist burst from his body like a flood from a broken dam.
This time it did not spread outward. It compressed into a towering black tornado that speared the sky.
As it spun, corpses shot out from within one after another like arrows, plunging into the sea and throwing up great plumes of water.
In short order, Yami had cleaned the cabins and the deck.
He was more than satisfied with the Dark-Dark Fruit's power.
Though this most notorious ability in history did not grant the best Logia intangibility and even carried the drawback of doubled pain, compared to black hole gravity and the black hole's space and its terrifying properties, that hardly mattered.
Compared to Blackbeard, the Dark-Dark Fruit matched Yami even better.
Because Yami possessed a body impervious to blades and bullets.
Aside from Haki masters and special ability users, no one could break his defense.
If they could not breach it, they could not inflict that doubled pain.
So the fruit's side effect had little effect on Yami.
With the drawback reduced to almost nothing, the Dark-Dark Fruit became truly fearsome.
Beyond gravity and the black hole's space, it naturally carried a property akin to seastone.
Any Devil Fruit user whose body Yami's hand touched would immediately lose their power and become an ordinary person.
Even the Nika Fruit was no exception.
In addition, the black hole's pull could seize the devil's power that lingers and then fades within a user's body after death, forcing it to attach at once to a fruit in the Dark-Dark user's hand to be reborn, or be directly absorbed by a Dark-Dark user with a special physique to become a second fruit ability.
This was why the Dark-Dark Fruit, though lacking overwhelming physical destructive force, lacking intangibility, and burdened with a severe side effect, was still called the most vicious ability in history.
Because it was the most vicious Devil Fruit, only someone with a special physique was truly suited to be its master.
If someone without such a physique ate it, they would be like those who ate the Nika Fruit across eight hundred years yet could not awaken it, a waste.
Back to the point.
After tidying the pirate ship, Yami took out an Eternal Pose, gazed toward a certain direction over the sea, and his eyes seemed to burn with a scorching fire, full of impatience.
"First I hunt the initial target, then I hunt the second."
"As long as I obtain those two Devil Fruits, this sea will hold no secrets from me and I will fear nothing."
"When that time comes, my growth will skyrocket."
—
Water 7, one of the most famous islands in the world.
Recognized as the holy land of shipbuilding, it has existed for eight hundred years.
The ancient weapon said in legend to be capable of destroying the world, the most fearsome warship in shipbuilding history, Pluton, was built by shipwrights of Water 7. This may well be where Pluton was born.
As the shipbuilding holy land and the world's sole island with a sea train, Water 7's prosperity needs no explanation.
Across both halves of the Grand Line, the Eternal Pose to Water 7 is among the best-selling each year.
Every day countless sailing ships enter this beautiful city of water.
Not only from its own route, but from all over the world.
After seven days, Yami finally reached the island.
During those seven days, Yami had taken down the Jolly Roger and painted over the emblem on the sail.
So when he entered Water 7, he met no obstruction. Under a harbor master's guidance, he sailed the vessel into the port.
After anchoring, Yami paid a docking fee, bought a local map at a stall, then rented one of Water 7's specialty mounts, a Yagara Bull.
Riding the Yagara Bull, Yami quickly reached the central street.
He bought a Water 7 style mask, then began searching for Blueno's Bar.
Yes, Yami's first hunting target was Blueno, the man who had eaten the Paramecia Door-Door Fruit.
Yami did not know why Blackbeard, with his unique physique, clearly able to eat multiple Devil Fruits, chose so carefully and did not.
In any case, the system-given special physique was a multi-ability physique that could consume multiple Devil Fruits.
Such a perfect body, combined with the Dark-Dark Fruit that could hunt down abilities, was a match made in heaven.
If he ate only one or two fruits, that would be a criminal waste.
So when he decided to seek the Dark-Dark Fruit, Yami had already drafted his future plan.
He originally thought the plan would have to wait until Sea Circle Calendar 1520, when the Dark-Dark Fruit would surface, to cut off Blackbeard and then seize those two fruits to kick it off.
But after unexpectedly acquiring the Dark-Dark Fruit, Yami could not help acting at once.
As long as he obtained the Paramecia Door-Door Fruit and then that other Devil Fruit, Yami's growth would rocket like a firework.